Who will administer the antidote to poisons that are killing sport?

By Peter Roebuck

March 31, 2007 — 10.00am

LAST week, a distinguished headmaster and school coach wrote to say that he was in despair. For 20 years he had been devoting himself to the game of cricket, instilling courage, commitment, determination, respect, manners and sportsmanship, and now wondered whether he had been wasting his time. Match fixing had been bad enough. But murder? What was the point? Where was the meaning? I was unable to provide a satisfactory answer.

Let none of us pretend that our spirits have escaped unharmed from the shock, the downright nakedness of Bob Woolmer's murder. None of us imagined sport to be populated solely by saints. Indeed, our own periodic knavery must be admitted. But it did not seem possible to sink so low, to end the life of another man. True cricketers despise beamers, because they break the ties that bind. There is a code. What happened to it? Did we regret its gradual erosion? Did we even notice?

It's hard to care which team wins the World Cup, or anything else. Too much attention is paid to results. Does victory prove that a Catholic is better than a Protestant, one school superior to another, or a country or a suburb or a city? A terrible mistake has been made. It happened on the day the laughter stopped. It was the day sport fulfilled George Orwell's prediction by becoming not a source of joy but a slightly more civilised version of warfare.

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Cricket is no better than any other game. Indeed, it is worse than most. It is time to stop talking about nobility and the game they play in heaven and to see things in their true light. Sport has destroyed itself. In any case, they play music in heaven. As far as cricket is concerned, drastic action is needed to restore some semblance of worth.

Pakistan must be banned from international cricket for five years. If Bob Woolmer was indeed murdered by corrupt players, then they should be ousted for a decade. What has been their contribution since Imran Khan left the scene? Ball tampering, match fixing, zealotry, chucking, steroid taking and tantrum throwing.

Zimbabwe should be banned until the current evil has been ended. As a country, it is rotten to the core - and the same applies to the cricket (a truth that somehow eludes the ANC and its shameful leaders). The ANC wants us to stop being nasty to nice old Mr Mugabe, whose sole offence has been to encourage starvation, destruction, mass murder, ruination and sundry forms of cruelty. Zimbabwean cricket is run by the same racketeers, yet they remain in office. In his capacity as president of the ICC, Percy Sonn, has been the worst offender. He is a man easily mistaken for a pompous fraud. Meanwhile, the authorities heroically detect bad governance in American cricket.

But Zimbabwe will continue. Cricket has no standards, no conscience, no courage. Among cricketers, Tatenda Taibu stands out. Here is a young, married man threatened by his own officials, unprotected by the game, forced to flee his home and country, who refuses to give in to sustained pressure and relentless vilification from his fattened and fleecing seniors. Sonn should be sent to live as a common man in Highfields and Taibu should run the game.

Its not going to happen. India needs the votes. And India rules the roost. But Indian cricket is in a mess. Never mind the team. It has served with distinction but contains too many ageing players. Adulation is the problem. Greed is the flaw. Players break through, flourish and are feted, a process few survive. Meanwhile, the system continues to stink, and the grounds to fester as spectators are treated with contempt.

England are struggling to contain their lager lout "culture" and Australia's breast-beating gives offence. At least Sri Lankan cricket is in better hands than a country governed by unprincipled thugs. As usual, New Zealand remains an underestimated oasis of sanity.

Nor is cricket the only game to provoke despair. Matches and fights are fixed. Referees take bribes. Teams lose deliberately to improve their draft prospects. Cyclists, athletes and swimmers take drugs as responsible parties look the other way. Soccer players dive and feign injury. None of them should be allowed to play again. Ever. Yellow cards won't change anything. Rugby players show commendable discipline on the field but lapse elsewhere. Spectators curse referees, parents fight, and gifted children are fawned over.

And this is the stuff of our dreams? Alas, it is too late to stop agents, entrepreneurs and the rest throwing money around, giving it to immature youths, then feigning surprise when drugs and the other emptinesses of contemporary life take hold. Sport is supposed to be an expression of talent and a test of character. But it has been seized by the unscrupulous and shallow.

Can any hope be found? Perhaps sportsmen might take note of remarks addressed to the 1959 Indian team by a spiritual leader, Meher Baba. "In sport, you have the unique opportunity of practising, and conveying, the great spiritual lessons of concentration and love. When you take the field, if you play with one heart, enjoying excellence in another player as in yourself, whether that player is a colleague or an opponent, and so eliminating feelings of jealousy, anger and pride which often mars sport, you will not only be entertaining spectators but demonstrating the real spirit of sportsmanship."